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The Virus That Institutionalised Discrimination- Part 1

Admin March 31, 2021

Neville Uditha Weerasinghe We can identify three major turning points of racial tensions that arose against Muslim citizens in the recent post-war history of Sri Lanka. The anti-Muslim violence that erupted in Aluthgama on the 15th of June, 2014, the Kandy anti-Muslim riots of 2018, and the

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Moulding of Human Thought by Facebook

Admin March 31, 2021

Udeni Perera There is no doubt that you might have seen countless incidences where some humans thought to themselves that their own race and culture is better or more valuable than that of their neighbour’s. They even go so far as to think that any race other than theirs is inferior. Let us identify this […]

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The culture of hate speech that developed with the discourse of burying corpses

Admin March 31, 2021

Nevil Uditha Weerasinghe Facebook interprets Hate Speech as:  “A direct attack on individuals based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious illness or disability. When age is paired with another safety feature, we protect against age-related attacks and also provide some

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Resurfacing the Debate over the Cremation of Corpses

Admin March 31, 2021

Sampath Deshapriya The social discourse on the burial of the bodies of Sri Lankan Muslims who died of Covid 19 has once again sparked a new round of social dialogue. The government took steps to cremate the bodies instead of permitting them to be buried, and a statement made by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa in […]

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The Question of the National Anthem’s Language and the Nature of the Crisis (Part 2)

Admin March 31, 2021

Dhanushka Silva The D.S. Senanayake cabinet included two Tamil ministers, GG Ponnambalam and C. Sittampalam. The Prime Minister requested that a suitable Tamil translation be adopted for the national anthem as soon as a Cabinet Paper on the topic was passed. Scholar Panditha M. Nallathambi was entrusted with the task and came up with an […]

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The Debates and Ideologies of the Evolution of the National Anthem (Part 1)

Admin March 31, 2021

Dhanushka Silva It has become a common occurrence in Sri Lanka to see society debate on the language in which the national anthem of Sri Lanka should be sung and it arises at nearly every national festival. Such dialogue also took place on the eve of the 73rd Independence Day celebrations. The majority Sinhala community […]

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Dhammika Paniya and the wave of fake news that followed

Admin March 30, 2021

Neville Uditha Weerasinghe The news of the ‘Ayurveda Paniya’ developed by Dhammika Bandara, a traditional medical practitioner spread like wildfire in Sri Lankan social media circles as well as in some mainstream media circles.  According to a report by #Hashtag Generation, this was one of the most highlighted news items on social media in Sri […]

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The right to land is crucial for peace in the East (Part One)

Admin March 29, 2021

Neville Uditha Weerasinghe The ethnic composition of Sri Lanka’s East makes it a unique place, as all three ethnic groups, Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese, are found spread within the Province. Through this article, we will briefly look into how this ethnic composition in the Eastern Province has in the past as well as in the […]

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The Genocide in Rwanda a case Study on Hate Speech and Fake News

Admin March 27, 2021

M.S.M.Ayub One of the most wanted men responsible for the death of more than 800,000 people during the Rwandan genocide in 1994 was arrested near Paris on May 16th, last year. Felicien Kabuga, the businessman and the co-founder of RTLM radio, the vicious mouthpiece of the Hutu militiamen in Rwanda before and during the genocide […]

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Cyber Warders to Ensure a Safer Internet for All

Admin March 27, 2021

Dilhani Thantirimudalige Safer Internet Day (SID) celebrated its 18th edition across the globe on 9th February 2021 under the slogan, “Together for a better internet”. The idea was to send an open call for all stakeholders to join in an effort to make the internet a safer place, especially for children, youth and women. Whether […]